Obama or Romney? Does it even mater?

Here's the truth: No one knows for sure what a newly elected politician will do. Intellectual or professional background counts for little when a person is suddenly flush with power, slammed with daily duties, bound by institutional expectations, surrounded by people who know far more about nearly everything related to the affairs of state, and overwhelmed by suddenly being the chief executive of history's largest and most astonishing complex power apparatus.

The same is true about what was said on the campaign trail. By the time they are sworn in, it's all ancient history, just data points in the process that got them where they want to be.

Party platforms? Those are as binding as yesterday's editorial page of the local newspaper. Platforms are pressure valves for chumps, worthless documents that provide a means to convince the party regulars that it really does matter what the workers and peasants in the party believe, even though it doesn't matter at all, since they've already performed the essential service of giving money, making calls, passing out leaflets, and holding approved signs at the conventions.

Financial backers might be the best predictor of future actions of presidents, but even here, the guidance is vague. It's not even entirely clear to what extent the person of the president himself really possesses the control that American political culture assumes he has. People complain about how politicians betray the people every single time. But what if betrayal is inevitable and all the promises and claims are nothing more than propaganda just to get one gang into power instead of another?

People like to assume that we are voting on issues. The media hector politicians to "stick to the issues." We are supposed to do our civic duty and bone up on the "issues." But when you get to the voting booth, there are no issues on the ballot on the federal level. There are only people's names. That's what we are voting for: person x or person y. All the rest is guesswork based on fleeting, gassy words in the air. All the talk about issues only distracts from this devastating reality that no one has a clue what this or that elected official is going to do in reality.